TODAY’S HISTORY LESSON: AUGUST 4
1558 1st printing of Zohar (Jewish Kabbalah)
1578 A crusade against the Moors of Morocco is routed at the Battle of Alcazar-el-Kebir. King Sebastian of Portugal and 8,000 of his soldiers are killed.
1693 Dom Perignon invents champagne
1735 Printer John Peter Zenger, defended by Andrew Hamilton, was acquitted of libel in a case that helped foster freedom of the press.
1789 The Constituent Assembly in France abolishes the privileges of nobility.
1790 The Revenue Cutter service, the parent service of the U.S. Navy and Coast Guard, is organized.
1821 Russian Antarctic Expedition led by Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen returns to Kronshtadt after becoming the 1st to circumnavigate Antarctica
1875 The first Convention of Colored Newspapermen is held in Cincinnati, Ohio.
1892 Lizzie Borden’s father and stepmother were killed with an axe in Fall River, Mass.
1914 Germany invaded Belgium and, in response, Britain declared war on Germany.
1916 Denmark ceded the Danish West Indies, including the Danish Virgin Islands, to the United States for $25 million.
1942 1st train with Jews departs Mechelen Belgium to Auschwitz
1942 The British government charges that Mohandas Gandhi and his All-Indian Congress Party favor “appeasement” with Japan.
1944 RAF pilot T. D. Dean becomes the first pilot to destroy a V-1 buzz bomb when he tips the pilotless craft’s wing, sending it off course.
1944 Anne Frank is captured. One of the most well-known figures of the 20th century and a victim of the Holocaust, 14-year old Frank and her family were captured and arrested by the Germans from their hiding place in Amsterdam.
1964 The bodies of civil rights workers Michael Schwerner, Andrew Goodman & James E. Chaney, are discovered in an earthen Mississippi dam.
1964 The U.S.S. Maddox and Turner Joy exchange fire with North Vietnamese patrol boats.
1972 Arthur Bremer is sentenced to 63 years for shooting Alabama governor George Wallace, later reduced to 53 years.
1979 President Jimmy Carter establishes the Department of Energy.
1982 NY Met Joel Youngblood singles in Chicago day game, then singles for Expos in Philadelphia night game. (He was traded in between)
1983 The Military Stages a Coup in Upper Volta
1984 The Republic of Upper Volta is Renamed Burkina Faso
1986 The United States Football League called off its 1986 season. This was after winning only token damages in its antitrust lawsuit against the National Football League.
1987 The Fairness Doctrine was rescinded by the Federal Communications Commission. The doctrine had required that radio and TV stations present controversial issues in a balanced fashion.
1988 The US Senate votes to give each Japanese-American who was interned during WWII $20,000 compensation and an apology.
2007 NASA launches the Phoenix spacecraft on a mission to Mars.
2015 Muppets Miss Piggy and Kermit the Frog announce the end to their relationship on Twitter
REFERENCE: history.net, onthisday.com, thepeopleshistory.com, timeanddate.com, scopesys.com, on-this-day.com
